I’m a little chagrined here, a little excited, a bit enthused, and rather admiring. It is my wont to occasionally peruse that veritable cornucopia of visual medium known as Youtube. There’s TOOOOONS of absolute crap on it, but there is also an amazing amount of truly wonderful material out there to inspire, assist, and educate. Today, while trying to re-find a video on a giant rolling ball sculpture that a college student built for his thesis in engineering or physics or something (it uses bowling balls that reach speeds of 80mph – sweet!) I came across a video I’ve never seen before.

Behold, awesome readers, a copper rolling ball sculpture that aspires to art as much as movement:

View, view, view, and view. I can’t get enough of this thing! I mean, just, like, just check out…LOOK! The frame, it’s not just eight pieces of water pipe soldered together to make a box. Those curves, so swooping and graceful, and notice that where they dip they become contact points for the supports that hold up the track – gorgeous and effective. Two points! The solder joints are all very well done, and the spacers for the track are shaped into rings rather than simple flat bars. Note that other support legs are formed into curved pieces as well, and small termination points are shaped into curls. All these elements add to the whole of the sculpture. It’s very harmonious, no?

And look at the use of open space. The marbles seem to zip and float across the curved track in the center, then gracefully move through the spiral, exiting at the bottom without a bump. The visual grace is fantastic. I admire how he has taken car to not use too many support rods. It has a very clean feeling to it. I wish I could see it up close without the shadows in the background to distract from the effect. It’s really great stuff.

In addition, the lift wheel is beautiful. I’m trying to figure out what it’s made of, as I believe a solid copper piece of that size would price in at an extremely health chunk of change (brass wheels of three inches in diameter are 80 bucks, for what that’s worth, and all metals have sharply increased in price in the past year). The fit and finish on everything is of very high quality.

I post all this, partly in reference to some comments made by Matthew Gaulden about some characteristics of my own work. I must enjoy the curving lines, as I was immediately drawn to this when it came up on my screen. I also post it as a point of interest, to give you an idea of just what inspires me when I do my own work. You and I are learning this stuff together, as I’m very early in the process, and there will be many discoveries as to what makes me go, “Oh, yeah! I wanna do THAT!” Right now, this is the sort of thing I want to do. I’m finishing a smaller work right now, but the long, uninterrupted lengths of smooth track on this piece are really, really getting me going. I wouldn’t be surprised if something like that doesn’t show up in one of my future works. This is finely crafted stuff. I wish the guy lived in the U.S. I’d love to meet him some time.

This weekend I have some free time. Hopefully, that means there will be more accomplishment news come Monday. See you then.